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The Chandrayaan-3 mission’s lander module separated from the propulsion module on Thursday. The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on Friday shared a video montage of images taken by the Lander Imager Camera-1 shortly after the separation.
The separation of the lander module from the propulsion module carried the former to a 10- kilometre orbit around the Moon. The mission launched from the Sathish Dhawan Space Center in Sriharikota on July 14. After multiple manoeuvres in Earth orbit, it entered a lunar orbit on August 5. It then went through some orbit reduction manoeuvres while in a lunar orbit on August 6, 9 and 14. This was followed by the fifth and final lunar-bound
The video contains one image containing the Fabry crater and another image containing the Giordano Bruno and Harkhebi J craters. All these craters are on the far side of the Moon. In one of the images of the crater, the Earth can be seen in the distant background. Another image shows a blurry light source set against an inky black background. This is an image of the propulsion module, according to the space agency.
The Chandrayaan 3 spacecraft was launched on July 14 and entered into lunar orbit on August 5, following which orbit reduction manoeuvres were carried out on August 6, 9 and 14. On August 16, the spacecraft successfully underwent a fifth and final lunar-bound orbit manoeuvre. Separation of the lander module from the propulsion module was reported on August 17.
Now, the lander should go through a “deboost” procedure which should place it in an orbit that will have it 30 kilometres from the Moon’s surface at its closest and 100 kilometres at its farthest. ISRO will attempt a soft landing from this orbit on Wednesday, August 23.
